A dream brought me there. A
vision, however fleeting, has taken hold of me, and though for a year it was
put aside in the pursuit of other things, it has nevertheless shown itself
insistent.
The 13th IYAS
National Writers’ Workshop was the second creative writing workshop that I
attended as a fellow. The first was the 8th Lamiraw Regional
Creative Writing Workshop in November 2011. Lamiraw,
we were told, is a Waray word which meant a vision, a fleeting dream. Iyas, on the other hand, is a Hiligaynon
word for a prized seed that is expected to grow better than others. Hence my awakening:
a fleeting dream which has gripped me even in my waking hours, so that I am now
ready to be sown in the literary fields.
The IYAS Poster
announcement 2013
I received the IYAS e-mail
immediately after the secretariat sent it. I hesitated to read it at first for
I feared a rejection, a refusal which would cause me to further spend more time
in writer-ly frustration. So when I read ‘Congratulations!’ at the start of the
message, I knew I wouldn’t let anything else bar my way to IYAS. With more than
a year spent keeping my writing to myself, I felt I was more than ready for
this.
Getting there, in the
literal sense, was not as much of a problem as it looked. I had already spent
the last six months in Cebu that I was relatively unfazed when it comes to
entering new territories. (In fact, one of the reasons I applied was because of
the location. I wanted to backpack my way to anywhere my legs would take me.) Figuratively,
however, I almost moved heaven and earth. IYAS, though one of the few national
writers’ workshops that accept works in the regional languages, does not accept
works in Waray. Language was the foremost issue: although I haven’t had a
single successful attempt to write in Waray, my English still seemed to me like
reportage, stripped of the musicality I admire in the regional languages. Yet I
was hell-bent on joining another workshop to gauge my progress. In the end,
though it seems a contradiction and even a betrayal of my mother tongue, I
chose to write in Cebuano.
With this contradiction, I
imagined I was the most disadvantaged of all the fellows. All the others were
naturally comfortable and at one with the language they chose to write in – their
personalities were no doubt interwoven with the language they used. And I was
there, apprehensive to be caught left-handed.
Added to this was the fact
that some of the fellows already moved in their own literary circles and I was
just starting. I remember texting my close friends back home during the welcome
dinner at the residence of IYAS co-founder and Palanca Hall of Famer Dr. Elsa
Coscolluela for want of comfort and assurance that I would hold my own with
these big fishes. Yet this was what I wanted, and if this was what my itching
feet would bring me, then bring it on!
Sights and
Sounds in Sugar Country
Eager traveler that I was, one
aspect of the workshop that appealed to me was the city tour where we were
taken to the historical sites in Bacolod and nearby cities. Our first stop was
the Bacolod City Plaza where they usually hold the Masskara Festival. The tiles
in the plaza and converge towards the gazebo, marking it as the undoubted
center of the plaza. The gazebo is marked with the names of the great composers
of the classical period: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Around the gazebo are
several fountains with sculptures depicting scenes in mythology. The plaza has a decidedly European
influence.
Next was the Lagoon of Distance, as an admired
writer named it. This lagoon faced the Provincial Capitol in the usual
neoclassical structure brought by American influence. Ma’am Marj told me that
in the previous years, the panelists took the fellows around to spots like the
Lagoon for a writing exercise combined with sightseeing.
After stopping for lunch at SM Bacolod, we
went to Balay ni Tana Dicang, a famous woman captain in Talisay who entertained
in her house the likes of President Manuel Quezon and Sergio Osmeña. The house
was a real treasure of ancient riches, the floors made of high-class wood and
the furnishings in true antique fashion.
After Tana Dicang’s house, we stopped for
coffee and shopping at El Ideal Bakeshop in Silay, where it was established
since the 1920s. Then on we went to Victorias to the Angry Christ Church which
sparked such curiosity from the fellows. Why is this Christ angry? It is
Judgment Day, that’s why. The painting at first generated controversy among the
townspeople themselves, but later it settled in. The Church is also an
architectural achievement as Architect Alcazaren explained since the structures
supporting the roof will not cave in in case of an earthquake.
And finally, though we paid the entrance fee
from our own pockets, we pushed on to the Taj Mahal of Negros. There we found
Love among the Ruins, a mausoleum built by Don Mariano Lacson for his beloved,
Maria Braga. The structure of the Ruins is all that remains now, since it was
razed to the ground to prevent Japanese occupancy. Yet the token of love is
still there, tall amidst the sprawling green, standing even against time.
But since it was sugar country, perhaps the
most compelling sight was that of trucks loaded to the full with sugarcane, a
sight so woven into the painting of life in Negros. Yet like anything else,
this sight carries with it heavier questions as was shown to us by Direk J.
Abello’s movie Pureza. All things considered, what price must be paid for the sugar in your cup of coffee? How
much labor do the saccadas, the field workers, make to bring you the two or
three lumps you need for every cup? Somehow, those questions dulled my appetite
during the session breaks when they would serve snacks fully coated with sugar
delight.
Mixing business
with pleasure with coffee and sugar delight!
The Panelists and IYAS Buddies
Perhaps the best gift of the workshop is the
sense of nourishment that pervaded the atmosphere. They couldn’t have chosen a
more appropriate name for such a nurturing workshop as IYAS.
One reason for this is the panelists
themselves. Although it was only the second workshop I attended, I had also
been an auditor of the 7th Lamiraw workshop and had met other
literary giants before I decided to plunge into creative writing, and I could
say that the particular group of panelists that we have had was by far the
gentlest group I’ve met. They showed me that criticism doesn’t have to be cutting
to be sharp.
Ma’am Gen Asenjo with her sharp eye had the
sharpest tongue among the panelists. Ma’am Gen was very straightforward with
her comments in her search for emotional truth, yet was also effusive with her
praise. She often cited authors and works that she would like the follows to
read. Her most memorable advice was to think of the big idea that would
permeate the poem.
Ma’am Grace Monte de Ramos-Arcellana, who took
Dr. Elsie’s place as the resident nitpicker of the panelists, nevertheless saw much
insight in the works of the fellows and was ever ready to listen to other
views, old feminist that she professed herself to be.
Small group craft
session with Ma’am Grace Monte de Ramos-Arcellana.
Sir Ronald Baytan, like Sir DM, also gave smooth
yet informative critiques. Although he only gave comments for works in Filipino
and English, he still contributed to our general discussions on writing. He
served as panelist in-charge whenever Ma’am Dinah is not around and saw to it
that we followed the schedule.
Sir DM Reyes, gave critiques that, although
given last in danger of being kicked out of the panel as Sir JI joked, put more
into the poems and short stories than was intentionally written by the authors.
His comments were very much informed by theory, and his manner very calm you
would think he was only giving a friendly reminder.
Ma’am Dinah Roma Sianturi was the workshop
director this year. Like the rest of the women panelists, she felt the
intuitions of the fellows and gave credit to these. She begged off giving
comments on works of fiction because as she says, poetry is her preference. Yet
she voiced the weighty questions we fellows dared not ask, and voiced it in
such humility you would have thought she wasn’t a recipient of the National
Book Award for Poetry!
Sir John Iremil Teodoro provided translations
in Filipino for works in Cebuano and Hiligaynon. Always playing the devil’s
advocate, he spiced up the discussions with up-front comments that were laced
with humor. Sir JI gave life to KRITIKA-IYAS interfaces that were otherwise
highfalutin to us fellows, giving a practical comment on art and criticism by
saying, “Yes, we are writers, and sometimes we have to pay the rent.”
Ma’am Marj, a beloved panelist from the 8th
Lamiraw, only sat on the sides during the sessions this year because she was
the documenter for the NCCA report. Still, her presence was felt. She held a
session on the Art of Bookmaking with her new book Fishes of Light: Tanrengas
in Two Tongues with Cuban poet Alex Fleites. There we had ourselves copies with
a personal message from the author herself! That revealed her intuitive
observations on each of us, with, as in Isabel Allende’s character Belisa
Crepusculario, the gift of a secret word to drive us towards luminosity. The
words she gave were for us to keep, and for me, those words were as much of a
present as her critiques had she joined the panel.
 |
| Ma'am Marj and I |
And though we only had a chance to really talk
with Dr. Elsie during the closing night when we had a picture taken with her,
she nevertheless had done her part by giving us motherly advice. Referring to
her comments and nitpicking on Arkay’s poems, she said, “This is what I would
have done if the poem was mine because this is how Edith Tiempo taught us.” She
nevertheless maintained that we, the fellows, still had the last say on our
work.
And of course, the fellows and IYAS buddies
made the workshop a true gathering of like-minded comrades.
Naturally my closest IYAS buddies were the
‘girls’ of the group: Ate Kei Valmoria-Bughaw, whose Cebuano stories were
commentaries on the beliefs of the rural folk and whose short story Ang Deboto
ni San Roque triggered such a discussion and led Sir JI to comment that
‘excluding the first paragraph, this is the perfect short story’ because of her
deftness in planting ideas (her room became our official hangout); Stef Tran,
my roommate from Ateneo de Manila, whose very rich historical material and
unconventional collection of poems explores the limits of poetic language; and our
youngest fellow, Winston Gallo of WVSU whose coming out poems dealt with the
‘poetics of victimage’ as Sir Baytan put it but possessed very high potential.
Yet we also bonded easily with the others: Cedric
Tan, another Atenean and our resident orator who, along with Arkay, recited
classic poems tit for tat, his stories were commended for their fluid language;
Manu Avenido of Cebu who was able to handle various POVs in his short story Ang
Milagros sa Baryo Camansili, which, incidentally, won second place in this
year’s 2nd Sinulat Awards in Cebu; JP Cuñada, our attorney and group
leader whose poems, though very didactic, are very lyrical; Nikos Primavera of
UP Visayas whose Hiligaynon poems are a torrent of words painting a picture ala
Brilliantes Mendoza according to Ma’am Gen; Bicolano Elmar Templonuevo whose
poem Quezon Avenue Station, according to Ma’am Grace is the most poetic
justification for giving coins to a beggar instead of bills, and who, Sir
Baytan says, has mastered the shape of poetry; Rommel Roxas of UST whose poems
exuded a daring to explore metaphysical themes toward a spiritual revelation; Danilo
Niño Calalang, our Direk, whose short story Bagahe was, as Sir DM says, a short
and uncanny story that could powerfully make a comment on something serious and
sick in our society and Jombits Quintos who
was a fellow of the KRITIKA last year and reinvented myth with his Si
Nagmalitung Yawa.
And of course the Medyo Bad Boyz of this
year’s IYAS: Arkay Timonera of Silliman, whose high level of technical
proficiency and emotional maturity made Ma’am Gen say that his collection of
poems was ‘namumukadkad at humahalimuyak’;
Michael Gomez, another Sillimanian,whose smooth dialogues were praised was
nicknamed the Godfather for his stories of the gangster life; and Erik Tuban of
Cebu, our Neruda, whose strong sense of irreverence and fantastic imagination
is nevertheless embedded with very sharp observations of contemporary realities.
With these companions, I knew that though I
may be discouraged, I will write on.
IYAS Panelists
and Fellows 2013
Turning a New Leaf
And so with the
lazy schedule, the good food, the relaxed environment of the Balay Kalinungan
(literally House of Peace in Hiligaynon) inside the compound of the University
of St. La Salle, and the small group craft sessions with very kind and very
approachable panelists and equally crazy fellows, the IYAS atmosphere of gentle
encouragement took root in me.
My own poems were
favorably received. Sir JI even jokingly asked, ‘Bakit pag Cebuano poetry magaganda? Sinasadya mo ba ito, Marj?’Later,
my co-fellow
and IYAS buddy Ate Kei assured me further that my language was seamless. In the
same vein, my ego was boosted when one of the panelists, Ma’am Grace, told us
that they only chose the two best entries for every genre and language. This
meant, luckily, that of all those hopefuls who applied for Cebuano poetry, I
was one of the best two!
Ma’am Merlie Alunan said
that attending a workshop does not make one a poet. True. Yet the encouragement
that one gets from a workshop such as IYAS does wonders to a discouraged
spirit. This morale boost is perhaps because IYAS is already a national
writers’ workshop and the fellows who are accepted have more or less achieved
some level of development in their writing that they only need encouragement
from that point on. Still, melancholy more often than not slips in, and a reassuring
word often is enough to tip the scale towards writing again, and writing better
this time.
Dr. Elsie said in previous
workshops that, “What we look for in the works of a fellow is the seed of
creativity, the seed of talent that we can nurture. Being a fellow is an
achievement in itself. It means you have that seed, that talent. So don’t be
hurt if we criticize your work.”Indeed, though at first I had misgivings
because of my language position in the IYAS, I came out undeterred because of that
literary seed they saw in me, that seed they helped to cultivate. And I will
continue, because as was pleasantly pointed out by Sir DM, “Even while you are
listening right now, you are helping form Philippine Literature… Tandaan ninyo ‘yan, bahagi kayo ng paglikha
ng panitikan ng Pilipinas.”
Bacolod, the City of Smiles,
has taken on a new significance for me. I’ve come a long way from dreaming. Now
I will sprout leaves and shoot for the stars.
